The shale tower of this village today gives 1620 chimes to mark the end of World War II – Portugal

This year, the evocation has a double symbolic meaning. Because we are fighting other “wars”, citing political leaders about the pandemic and, on the other hand, because the conflict ended 75 years ago.

Account Artur Costa, resident in Benfeita, that “on the day the war ended, in 1745, the tower was not yet ready nor had the watch. It was by hand that the chimes rang ”. The tower had been under construction for some time “and was in the final phase because there was talk of the Armistice, as it happened.”

Artur Costa has a small shop very close to the Tower and also helped to ring the bell on May 7, 1945. “I was 12 or 13 years old and I still went there to ring. When the war ended, it was a pandemonium here in Benfeita. They had a party. Several men got together, got goats and put on a show, it was a party of the devil. ” The environment in recent years has been very different. “Not now, not so much. For now, there are few people and there is no interest in these things as there was in the past. Today, they do not value these things as much as they did back then. ”

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Benfeita Peace Tower

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credits: andarilho.pt-

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Benfeita is part of the schist villages and the tower is one of the best examples of its use. The dark color of the shale highlights the watch that has a complex mechanism, but never failed. “It plays every year, you need to wind it up. It’s a mechanical watch, old, and you have to wind it up and everything is fine, he doesn’t forget. ”

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Benfeita Peace Tower

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credits: andarilho.pt-

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The clock mechanism has many cog wheels and in some of them they made inscriptions with various messages, such as “bless the peace”. The weights are large and granite.
At the top of the tower we can see a beautiful pinwheel with several icons. One is the dove, a symbol of peace.

The tower was close to two chapels, almost glued to that of Santa Rita and a few meters to the side of Senhor do Passos, and was built in 1945 on the initiative of Mario Mathias, jurist and native of Benfeita.

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Benfeita Peace Tower

Artur Costa-

credits: andarilho.pt-

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According to Artur Costa’s description, the person responsible for the construction of the tower “held several positions. He was in the Government, in the Ministry of the Interior, he was from Benfeita and very friendly with the land. He was also a well-known diplomat, plus his brother, and he remembered the tower to signal the end of the World War ”. Mário Mathias later returned to Benfeita where he was president of the Junta de Freguesia for 11 years.

In addition to the tower, Benfeita it has the Simões Dias museum and schist houses, many whitewashed, through narrow and winding streets that decorate the hillside.

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Benfeita Peace Tower

River Beach-

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The houses are crossed by the Ribeira da Mata, which merges with the Ribeira do Carcavão, next to Torre da Paz. The valley where the village is has many shadows, is a point of passage for tourists and in the summer they can cool off on the river beach .

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Benfeita

Fraga da Pena-

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Benfeita is also the gateway to some of the most spectacular places in this area of ​​the municipality of Arganil. The best known is Fraga da Pena. It is in the protected area of ​​Serra do Açor and the best known place is a 20 meter waterfall through which very cold water falls. All the surroundings are in a densely wooded area of ​​Mata da Margaraça.

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Benfeita

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credits: andarilho.pt-

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In the parish of Benfeita there are still small villages in the middle of the Serra do Açor that maintain the traditional architecture. Perhaps the one that stands out the most with shale houses is Sardal.

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